Flowers and Sculpture

Even though it is early Spring at the 7,000 ft. altitude here in Flagstaff, we saw quite a few flowers during our visit to the arboretum. A few of the blooms were outside.

Others were inside the greenhouse where they are propagating plants they can put out when the weather and soil get a little warmer.

Part of the temperature control in the greenhouse was interesting. These water towers absorb heat from the air during the day and give out heat at night.

There was also an interesting sign in the greenhouse. Notice Flagstaff receives, on average, about twice the snow that Denver does

We also passed an area where they were starting native grasses. The ground is covered with ground cloth, probably to both keep out weeds and warm the soil for faster growth.

The garden areas also had a number of sculptures that were interesting.  At the visitor center they had a listing of the sculptures and the price of each, "in case you have an extra $1,000 or so to spend."

We even found one carved wood statue.

A Walk in the Woods

Today we visited the Flagstaff, AZ, Arboretum.

We have spent lots of time over the years in Ponderosa pine forests and it felt good to be in one today. In places we had great views of the San Francisco peaks.

We think this is the Flagstaff Naval Observatory, which is nearby.

We saw Stellar Jays and horny toads, as well as mountain bluebirds and black-capped chickadees. (No photos of the last two.)

This is one of many bird houses attached to trees. Though this one looks broken, there was what appeared to be a fresh nest inside.

We are at 7,000 feet above sea level so the temps are much cooler than what we left in southern Arizona. There was a brisk wind and the temperatures were in the upper 50s. Look how we were dressed, both to walk around and during a stop for lunch.

There were lots of school children exploring the arboretum.

We saw numerous signs and information about the importance of fire and thinning to keep the forest healthy. Here we saw signs of a fairly recent controlled burn to remove smaller trees and encourage growth of native grasses.

There were lots of wild flowers, both those blooming outdoors and others in the greenhouses where they propagate plants to improve the natural vegetation. We also saw numerous sculptures in the gardens. I will save those for later posts.

An Almost Grand Day

Saturday, we rode the train to the Grand Canyon. The shuttle from our RV park left at 8:30 to take us to the station, where we picked up our tickets and then we were directed to the wild west show, put on by the Cataract Creek Gang. It wasn't long before the fellow who had 5 aces in his poker hand faced the six-shooter of another player.

While we were walking to this show, we heard an announcement that the steam engine that was supposed to pull the train was broken down. Darn! The train was pulled by an ordinary diesel engine.

We learned later that the engine's dynamo--a generator--failed and the engine can't operate without it. We would have loved to see the steam engine in use, but it didn't ruin our day. Today we checked the weather and it turns out yesterday was the nicest day at the Grand Canyon of all the time we are here in Williams.  It was good we made the trip yesterday, even without the steam engine.

After the train was underway, we had some entertainment by a cowboy singer. Note, he plays the guitar and also has a harmonica.  There was another singer during the return trip.

After a two-hour ride through open fields and ponderosa forests, we arrived at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Our first stop was the El Tovar hotel dining room. Our view during lunch was sure nothing to complain about.

You really have to visit the canyon to grasp the grandeur of God's creation there. Here are a few pictures that hint at what there is to see.

We had plenty of time to get in our daily five-mile walk before it was time to board the train again. But first, we watched a Native American dancer.

During our south-bound trip, three members of the Cataract Creek Gang rode up next to the train and made the engineer stop.

The bandits went looking for money and jewelry to steal from the passengers.

You certainly see all sorts of people on a tourist train. I really wondered what this fellow (yes, it is a guy) was about with this fancy hat.

Also during the return trip, we spotted elk and pronghorn. We had also seen a California condor souring above the canyon rim.

There Was a Little Delay

We were ready to leave Gold Canyon and head to Williams, AZ, at 8:30 this morning. But we didn't actually pull out until 10:30. The delay at first caused a bit of panic. The batteries in the RV were dead. We need the 12-volt system to raise and lower the landing gear of the 5th wheel, to open and close the slides and to reel in the power cord. John said, "call AAA." I said, "We don't have AAA, we have Coach-Net." That turned out to be a really good thing. Instead of AAA dispatching someone with new batteries, a technician from Coach-Net called back in about 45 minutes later. He walked John through several diagnostic tests. It looks like the switch in the controls for the landing gear that reads "In for storage, out for use and charging" means the batteries don't charge when that switch is in and the control panel is closed and locked.

The technician told us to put the switch in the charging position and wait 30 minutes to see if they batteries had a charge. So we set that up and went for a walk. When we returned, the batteries had charged enough we could complete everything and hitch up and pull out of our site.

Apparently, our RV had been sitting long enough without charging the batteries that they were totally out of power. The funny thing is, I harp at John for never parking without hookups so we can run down the battery. (You have to do that to keep them strong, don't you know?) Apparently, our RV took care of that all on it's own. At least, we hope that is the problem. If so, we saved quite a bit by not getting new batteries today. And, to top that off, our Coach-Net service is free till 2016. We received one year free with the Mobile Suite purchase and last summer we attended a Mobile Suites Rally where RVsForLess, a rally sponsor, gave us an additional 2 years free.

It feels good to be back on the road after sitting in southern Arizona for 7 months. On our trip north on the 101 and I-17, we saw this truck hauling several small trailers that looked like they belong to the US Army, each with a box inside.

We also saw this smoke on the horizon.

Before we could get too worried about a wild fire, we passed a sign that read, "Managed Burn. Do No Report."

We are at Railside RV Ranch in Williams for the next few days. Why? Because the Grand Canyon Train runs right by the park. We can even watch it through our back window.

We were planning to make reservations for the train sometime next week, but when we checked in here we learned that, on the first Saturday of the month, the train is pulled by the steam engine. Since tomorrow is the first Saturday of May, we quickly made reservations to ride tomorrow. After all, we spent a week in Skagway, Alaska, waiting to right the White Pass and Yukon train pulled by a steam engine. (Skagway is really not worth a whole week unless you have a really good reason to be there.) Tomorrow will be fun!